Freedom of Religion Versus Right to Life

[Albie]

And in case anyone cares, I celebrated 13 years clean and sober last week.

I can't say I know how you feel as I have not been there, but I do have someone in my immediate family (my mother) who is now 20 years or so dry. I saw first hand what she had gone through (before and after) and she is so much happier now. Great achievement, SMX.

 

[Anonymous]

I can't say much about Jehovah's Witness due the limited knowledge that I have.  I can, however, say that to endanger the lives of your own children in the name of religion is sick.  If a child is in danger due to parental negligence or refusal of care, then the child should certainly be removed from the custody of the parent.

 

[Mmm...Donuts]

I'd pretty much say that everyone has the right to life. I mean, what can a tested, clean blood transfusion do? Life is more than just being held back by religion. I'm a Catholic, but I believe that if you try to condemn some way to save people's lives, its unethical for me.

 

[Yax]

Alright, I'll better throw in my two cents... We humans are arrogant. What makes us think that we have the right to decide whether one should live or die? If it's possible, you should always save a life, if it's for the better of the person. I mean, if the life for that guy/girl would be lying in bed staring at the roof and get feeded three times a day, I would perhaps reconsider.

But just because someone has a certain belief does not give that someone the right to decide that if her/his  religion doesn't allow it, then there will be no medical treatment for the sick. I mean, is it sure that the sick would agree? Is it sure that the sick one would later have the same beliefs? No. Then I'd say, the mother/fathers job is to raise their child in order to let them make their own decisions, and not just steal that opportunity from them just because of what they belive. It's immoral. It's just as immoral as when a priest go to war. I mean, there are under no circumstances that a christian has the right to just break the rules of the ten commandments. "Thou shallt not kill". But then again, there are endless of times when priests, bishops and other has encouraged people to go to war and so on. How immoral is that?

I'd say, if you refuse someone medical treatment, then it's the same thing as pulling a trigger and blowing the brains out.

Just for the record, I'm an atheist.

 

[Anomica]

I saw the documentary Jesus Camp yesterday, about the evangelical revival and indoctrination of young children, last night. The more I learn about this issue, the more against organised religion I become.

 

[Onhell]

I saw the documentary Jesus Camp yesterday, about the evangelical revival and indoctrination of young children, last night. The more I learn about this issue, the more against organised religion I become.

Then this is the perfect time to tell you about my friend Jesus and how he can be your friend too

 

[Anomica]

Then this is the perfect time to tell you about my friend Jesus and how he can be your friend too

LMAO. Yeah, right

What bothers me with fundamentalists, regardless of creed, is that they are so judgemental. A bit like "Dubya" - If you're not with you're against us... excuse me, but piss off. There are lots of shades of gray between black and white. The woman they followed in Jesus Camp compared her childrens' summer camp with Palestinian terrorist camps (?) where 6-year olds learn to handle AK-47s and bomb belts. "Our children must be soldiers in the army of Christ and reclaim our country. One nation under God!" Her eyes shone like "Helter-skelter" and I was seriously wondering where the kind men in the clean white coates and the one-size-fits-all shirts were hiding, because she shouldn't be allowed to walk around freely. They tote the American constitution and the Bill of rights, especially freedom of speech, but the people that disagree with them aren't given the same rights. And President Bush's former religious advisor (!) talked about there being 80 million evangelicals around the US. It scares me that the world's most powerful nation is becoming a religious fundamentalist country, kind of like Taliban Afghanistan...but with nuclear capabilities

Freedom of religion is great, we have it in Sweden too, but that should also mean a freedom to be un-religious, agnostic, atheist or whatever and that doesn't really seem to be the reality. I personally think all fundamentalists, regardless of creed or cause, are a danger to everyone. Christian fundamentalists are just as dangerous as Muslim fundamentalists. Perhaps Buddhist fundamentalists are less dangerous considering they don't want harm any living things. But apart from those... oh joy! The world is going down the crapper faster and faster.

 

[Genghis Khan]

Excellent post, Anomica.  When Bush and his little Bushlets tried to pander to fundamentalist Christians during election campaigns they forgot that they were losing much of their support from middle-of-the-road Republicans who prefered less government interference in the economy.  Now that Bush obviously favours a big government, the zealous fundamentalists are ever more hopeful of power through government, since Republicans are having less-and-less of other kind of supporters.

 

[Onhell]

Freedom of religion is great, we have it in Sweden too, but that should also mean a freedom to be un-religious, agnostic, atheist or whatever and that doesn't really seem to be the reality. I personally think all fundamentalists, regardless of creed or cause, are a danger to everyone. Christian fundamentalists are just as dangerous as Muslim fundamentalists. Perhaps Buddhist fundamentalists are less dangerous considering they don't want harm any living things. But apart from those... oh joy! The world is going down the crapper faster and faster.

Couldn't agree more! The U.S seems to be going through its own version of th dark/middle ages, socially speaking.

 

[IronDuke]

i heard an interesting quote about the nature of religious freedom in the United States. It's from a television show, of all things:

To be a person of faith is to have the world challenge that faith. Was the universe designed by God? That's up to everyone in this country to decide for themselves, because the framers of our Constitution believed that if the people were to be sovereign and belong to different religions at the same time then our official religion would have to be no religion at all. It was a bold experiment then as it is now.. It wasn't meant to make us comfortable, it was meant to make us free.